Last month a federal judge blocked President Trump’s executive order to strip federal workers of their ‘collective bargaining’ rights.
President Trump previously issued an executive order blocking hundreds of thousands of federal workers in HHS, Veterans, Treasury and other federal agencies.
The National Treasury Employees Union sued the Trump Administration in response to the executive order.
US District Judge Paul Friedman, a Clinton appointee, blasted Trump earlier this week during a hearing on this case.
“So, he’s willing to be kind to those that work with him, but those that have sued him, those that have filed grievances, those that have complained against him, he’s not going to bargain with,” Judge Friedman said, according to Politico. “I mean how else can you read what he’s done?”
Friedman previously called Trump’s executive order “unlawful” and enjoined all defendants except President Trump.
On Friday evening, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Clinton judge’s ruling and lifted the block on Trump’s executive order.
The three-judge panel: Majority: Henderson (George H.W. Bush), Walker (Trump). Dissent: Childs (Biden).
“Preserving the President’s autonomy under a statute that expressly recognizes his national-security expertise is within the public interest,” Judges Henderson and Walker wrote, according to Politico.
Politico reported:
A federal appeals court has lifted a lower-court order that prevented the federal government from implementing President Donald Trump’s plan to end collective bargaining by workers at more than a dozen federal agencies.
In a 2-1 ruling Friday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman appeared to have erred last month when he froze Trump’s executive order on the subject.
The appeals court’s majority said there was insufficient evidence that the National Treasury Employees Union faced “irreparable harm” that would justify the preliminary injunction, Friedman said in his ruling.
Judges Karen Henderson, a George H. W. Bush appointee, and Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, said the national security exception the president invoked in federal labor relations law is an added reason for courts to tread lightly.
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